Embedded Files
Gaza Update
Gaza Update
This week in Gaza and Lebanon (Dec 1-6)
First, Amnesty International concluded that Israel is committing genocide.
In the same week, Israeli forces killed more humanitarian aid workers, including three World Central Kitchen workers, one staffer with Save the Children, and Palestinian chef Mahmoud al-Madhoun, who fed over 3,000 people a day through the Gaza Soup Kitchen. More humanitarian workers have been killed in 2024 than any other year on record, with two-thirds of them being killed by Israel’s military.
Another disturbing statistic? According to the United Nations, Gaza now has the highest number of child amputees per capita in the world, with “many losing limbs and undergoing surgeries without anesthesia.”
Meanwhile, Israel has violated its ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah at least 100 times and has continued to bombard residential neighborhoods in southern Lebanon, killing at least 11 people.
(Status below was last updated: Nov 29)
The genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity continue in Gaza as the Biden Administration unconditionally arms the apartheid state of Israel. After a year of genocide made possible by US bombs, weaponry and unconditional support, Israel banned a UN humanitarian and relief agency and declared it a terrorist organization.
The 30-day grace period the Biden Administration gave Israel for denying aid to Palestinians ended November 13. In spite of numerous NGO and UN groups finding that Israel had failed to comply and was in violation of US and international laws, Biden chose to continue arming the genocide.
On Thursday November 21, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Israeli assault on northern Gaza has brought the region to the brink of famine. An estimated 130,000 children under the age of 10 have been trapped in areas of northern Gaza almost entirely cut off from aid assistance, food and medical supplies for 50 days, a major humanitarian group said Monday. According to Save the Children, life-sustaining aid has largely failed to make it through to any of the people besieged by Israeli forces in northern Gaza since early October, when the IDF declared the territory a “dangerous combat zone” and ordered civilians to evacuate. Earlier this month, Joyce Msuya, Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator for the United Nations, warned that the Israeli offensive in the area that began in early October was “an intensified, extreme, and accelerated version of the horrors of the past year.”
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed at least 44,363 Palestinians and wounded 105,070 since October 7, 2023. The vast majority of the victims are children, women, elderly and noncombatant males. Thousands more are under the rubble.
A 60-day ceasefire went into effect this week in Lebanon, where at least 3,961 people have been killed and 16,520 wounded in Israeli attacks since the war on Gaza began.
Calling bullshit on US and Israeli lies and propaganda - Oct 25
Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan at Democracy Now! summarize the crisis in Gaza. By refusing to enforce US and international law, Biden is leaving office with this genocide forever tainting his legacy.
"Israel is using US taxpayer-funded arms to decimate Palestinians in Gaza, in clear contravention of US and international law. The people of Gaza are trapped, under siege, surrounded by the Israeli army and navy, with armed drones, helicopters and military jets overhead. They are being driven from their homes, starved, bombed, shot by snipers, killed by tank shells, and forced to live without clean water, sanitation, functioning hospitals, or the basics of survival. Every aspect of their society, their culture, their history, is being erased by Israel’s unrelenting bombardment and by smiling, selfie-snapping IDF demolition crews. None of this would have been possible without Biden’s support."
Check the Democracy Now! website for information on the war and first hand accounts of the war's effects on the people of Gaza. Democracy Now! has comprehensive, reliable coverage of the war on Gaza. It should be required reading for the Biden Administration and the congressional hawks so out of touch with the realities of the genocide. The homepage of Democracy Now! is linked here. Check it daily (they do a show every weekday) or subscribe to their newsletter and stay informed.
One day in Gaza (Mondoweiss, Nov 28): UNRWA warns conditions for survival are ‘diminishing’ for Palestinians in north Gaza
"The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza says that Israeli bombings have completely exterminated 1410 Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip since October 7 of last year, erasing them from the civil registry. UNRWA says that survival conditions in the north of Gaza are diminishing for 60,000 to 70,000 people in the north of Gaza and that Israeli forces have rejected nine attempts by the UN to deliver aid to the north of Gaza, and obstructed 82 in the past month. Israel killed 18 Palestinians, including five children, and wounded 57 on Thursday in 12 strikes and quadcopter fire on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip, including on an aid distribution center. Israel killed 30 Palestinians in a strike on a school sheltering civilians in the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City on Wednesday. The Gaza Government Media Office says that rainfall floods damaged 10,000 tents, representing 81% of the tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in 543 tent encampments across the south and center of the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Government Media Office says that displaced Palestinians need a quarter of a million new tents. Israeli drones drop bombs on the surroundings of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north of Gaza. The EU chief diplomat Joseph Borrell says that two million Palestinians are “living through hell” in the Gaza Strip, with no health care, education, or infrastructure, being displaced constantly like “playing ping-pong with their lives,” and calls for an immediate ceasefire."
Aid: Nearly two million Palestinians are facing starvation as Israel continues to interfere with aid deliveries. There is a “strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas” of northern Gaza, according to a committee of global food security experts, as Israeli forces press on with a major offensive in the area. “Immediate action, within days not weeks, is required from all actors who are directly taking part in the conflict, or have influence on its conduct, to avert and alleviate this catastrophic situation,” the independent Famine Review Committee (FRC) said in a rare alert on Friday Nov 8. With the United States still freezing UNRWA funds in the midst of genocide, famine, contaminated water supplies, a destroyed health care system and blocked aid deliveries, the UN agency says it has reached “breaking point” during a time of “unprecedented humanitarian needs in Gaza”.
How you can help the people of Gaza
How you can help the people of Gaza
Time Critical Political Actions
USCPR has a Stop Gaza Genocide Tool Kit
CodePink has a petition to the Senate to block HR 9545, a bill targeting non-profits including humanitarian aid groups and news organizations that support Palestinian human rights and oppose genocide.
Americans for Peace Now has a petition demanding that the US follow its own laws and stop sending weapons to Israel which has blocked aid to Gaza. The 30 day warning given Israel expired and the Biden Administration did nothing.
USCPR has a Find a Protest: Stop the Gaza Genocide webpage that lists recurring and upcoming protests across the United States.
Numerous peace and Palestinian rights groups are demanding an independent investigation into the killing of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a US citizen shot in the head and killed by the Israeli army during a demonstration near Nablus. Follow these links to petitions from USCPR, Win Without War, and CodePink.
Code Pink and the Justice Democrats have petitions calling on Sec. State Blinken to resign for lying about Israel blocking humanitarian aid.
Win Without War has a petition calling on Pres. Biden to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and de-escalate the threat of a regional war.
I - To counteract the profound humanitarian crisis, an immediate permanent ceasefire is needed. Aid to the devastated enclave, already one of the poorest and most oppressed in the world [link below left "Beginners' Guide"], must be allowed to flow freely. Without a ceasefire, this is impossible. And the only language that Israel may understand to agree to a ceasefire is for the US to stop weapons transfers to Israel as a number of our allies have done.
Call upon your member of Congress and your Senators requesting that they support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and ending the unconditional sale of weapons foir the genocide. Win Without War, AFSC and UNRWA are some of the many organizations offering a template. Then spread the word on social media.
On January 26, the International Court of Justice found a "plausible risk" that Israel is committing genocide. It is imperative that the United States end its support for war crimes. Military aid to Israel must stop until Israel fully complies with the ICJ directives to stop acts of genocide and to allow adequate aid into Gaza. Change.org, MoveOn, and Code Pink are three organizations with petitions you can sign.
Days after the ICJ ruling, Israel claimed that twelve of the 13,000 UNRWA aid workers had taken part in the October 7 attacks. Reacting to Israel's allegation, the United States and several other countries suspended contributions to the agency that Palestinians have relied on for everything from vaccinations to education for seven decades. Among many other peace organizations, Code Pink has a petition calling for restore UNRWA funding immediately.
USCPR (US Campaign for Palestinian Rights) has an Activist Tool Kit for organizing against the use of US tax dollars to arm Israel and fund genocide. Win Without War has a petition calling for stopping arms sales to Israel because of its violation of international law. MoveOn also has a petition calling for an end to arming Israel because of its killing of civilians.
II - Contribute to organizations and groups that are trying to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza even in the midst of the Israeli onslaught. Here is a partial listing with links:
UNRWA (United Nations Relief Works Administration)
Doctors without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontiere)
AFSC (American Friends Service Committee)
Palestine Red Crescent Society
International Rescue Committee
III - Take action to demand an immediate ceasefire, an end to unconditioned arms sales to Israel and justice for Palestinians throughout Occupied Palestine.
Protests are ongoing across the world demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. Various groups are organizing local events, most prominently CodePink, AFSC , Jewish Voice for Peace, and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights. Participate in these events to help put an end to the genocide.
Code Pink has an ongoing operation to talk to Senators and Congressmembers about stopping the genocide. You can find details here.
USCPR (US Committee for Palestinian Rights) has a Stop Gaza Genocide: Ceasefire Now! Toolkit They also have a petition to "End the Ongoing Nakba and End the Genocide".
Peace groups and supporters of Palestinian rights are calling on members of Congress to boycott or disrupt the scheduled July 24 appearance of Benjamin Netanyahu, for whom the ICC has issued an arrest warrant for war crimes. Numerous organizations have petitions calling on members of Congress to boycott or disrupt his war propaganda, including the US Campaign For Palestinian Rights, Code Pink, Move On and Justice Democrats. Win Without War has a billboard campaign to "greet" the "obstacle to peace" on his way from the airport.
Israeli apartheid, violations of international law, and human rights abuses have taken a toll on Palestinians throughout the Occupied Territories. Even before the relentless bombardment and ground invasion, residents of Gaza ("the world's largest open air prison") faced an even greater level of oppression and suffering thanks to the 16-year-long airtight land sea and air blockade - a war crime in itself as a form of collective punishment.
IV - Stay informed on the reality of the Occupation, the Blockade, Israeli apartheid, and the current assault on Gaza.
For the most part, US mainstream media are biased in their coverage of the situation in Occupied Palestine and tolerant of (or insensitive to) the decades of human rights abuses inflicted on Palestinians. Israel has maintained its apartheid system in large part because American politicians from both parties allow it.
Below left are links to several posts that give context to the Israel's apartheid system and their decades long violations of the human rights of Palestinians...The Al Jazeera post (Gaza Strip: A beginner's guide...) provides background on how Israel turned Gaza into the "world's largest open air prison"; the JVP post (Countdown to Genocide) summarizes the year leading up to the October 7 attack; the post "Americans need to know..." gives a picture of daily life in Gaza before the current genocide - a picture never shown to the American public; the WITW post "Occupied Palestine: A Primer" gives the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Below right are links to posts on the ongoing genocide.
Four news sources that give a more accurate view of the situation in Occupied Palestine:
Profiles in Courage
Profiles in Courage
In spite of pressure from the White House and the Israel Lobby, nineteen US Senators voted to support at least one of Sen. Bernie Sanders' resolutions to restrict arms sales to Israel based on its violations of US and international law. Before the vote, Sanders addressed his colleagues:
"I have heard members of the U.S. Senate come to this floor to denounce human rights violations taking place around the world. I have heard well-founded concerns about China’s brutal reception of the Uyghur ethnic minority. I’ve heard rightful outrage about Putin’s brutal attacks against Ukraine and bombing of civilian installations. I’ve heard genuine concern about Iran’s outrageous crackdown on peaceful protesters. I’ve heard repeated condemnations of Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia’s terrible treatment of women and political dissidents. And on and on it goes. A lot of folks come to the floor to talk about human rights and what’s going on around the world.
"But what I want to say to all those folks: Nobody is going to take anything you say with a grain of seriousness. You cannot condemn human rights around the world and then turn a blind eye to what the United States government is now funding in Israel. People will laugh in your face. They will say to you, “You’re concerned about China? You’re concerned about Russia? You’re concerned about Iran? Well, why are you funding the starvation of children in Gaza right now?”
The eighteen other courageous Senators besides Bernie Sanders voting to block arms sales to Israel were Tim Kaine; Martin Heinrich; Jon Ossoff; Tina Smith; Jeff Merkley; Mazie Hirono; Brian Schatz; Elizabeth Warren; Peter Welch; Chris Van Hollen; Dick Durbin; Jeanne Shaheen; Ben Ray Luján; Raphael Warnock; Chris Murphy; Ed Markey; George Helmy; and Angus King.
The Hall of Shame
The Hall of Shame
On November 12, 52 Democrats joined House Republicans in an attempt to pass H.R. 9495, which would grant the incoming Trump administration and future administrations unprecedented and unchecked power to take away vital tax exemptions from nonprofits — including news outlets — that are deemed “terrorist supporting.” Aimed at opponents of the Gaza genocide and defenders of Palestinian human rights, the bill failed to gain the two-thirds majority vote necessary for passage since the bill was being considered under a suspension of House rules. The AIPAC Democrats who disgraced themselves are listed in this post: Full List of Democrats Who Voted for Bill That Gives Trump Admin More Power - Newsweek. Do not ever contribute to the campaigns of these members of Congress.
Worst of the worst
Worst of the worst
The bill failed to gain the 2/3 majority it needed on November 12 because it was being expedited in a suspension of House rules. On November 22, the bill passed on a simple majority vote. The 15 AIPAC Democrats below still voted for HR 9495. The Justice Democrats will be challenging many of them in the 2026 primaries. Vote for their primary challengers.
Al Jazeera interviews several student leaders. The young men and women protesters are an inspiration to all of us concerned with justice and sickened by the ongoing genocide. The university response is an assault on free speech, and the dishonest slandering of the protesters by politicians is disgraceful.
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